(Honolulu, HI) – A national non-partisan senior citizens group announced today that 1st district GOP congressional candidate Charles Djou has received its Benjamin Franklin Award because “he has vowed to support full and permanent repeal of the federal estate tax ‘death tax.’” With more than 7.2 million senior supporters nationally, the 60 Plus Association is a nationally recognized senior citizen advocacy group, and the acknowledged leader in the fight to repeal the federal estate, or “death tax” as it more accurately termed because dying triggers the unfair, double tax.

In a statement released by 60 Plus, Boone, the organization’s National Spokesman, remarked, “I’m still singing at concerts, but today I’m singing the praises of Charles Djou. Seniors can depend on Charles Djou to fight for them against higher spending and higher taxes, including especially the harmful and burdensome death tax.”  Boone, 79, and his wife Shirley have been married for 60 years and reside in Beverly Hills, California. Boone is a frequent visitor to Hawaii where he owns a vacation property.

On hand to present the award was 60 Plus Association Washington, DC spokesman Palmer Schoening, who noted, “It was Ben Franklin who famously said there are two certainties in life, death and taxes, but because of the death tax, there is a third certainty – taxes after death. Charles Djou will work to repeal the death tax and make the old adage by Benjamin Franklin accurate once again.”

Charles Djou “knows a bad tax when he sees one,” said Schoening, “after winning a special election in 2010, Charles Djou immediately became a cosponsor of HR 205, a bill to permanently abolish the unfair and economically destructive death tax. Charles Djou has also signed the 60 Plus Association’s Death Tax Repeal Pledge. Djou agrees with over 70 percent of voters who favor full repeal of the death tax. This tax was instituted to help pay for World War I, but was never repealed following the signing of the Armistice, unlike the previous three times it was instituted.  The tax punishes work and savings, and prevents Hawaii’s family businesses, farms and ranches from being passed on to younger generations.

“The last time a death tax repeal bill received a vote almost exactly nine years ago, it sailed through the House of Representatives with a 110 vote margin. Over 40 Democrats voted to abolish this anti-business tax. States are racing to repeal or reduce their death taxes with bipartisan support. In the past four years, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee have all voted to abolish their state death taxes. This year Democratic Governors Cuomo of New York and O’Malley of Maryland signed bills dramatically reducing their states’ death tax burdens and changes are afoot in Rhode Island and Washington, DC. Both Democrats and Republicans realize that it is not the wealthy but small businesses, especially first generation, newly-emerging, minority-owned, small family run businesses that suffer the most.

“So, it is with a great deal of pride that 60 Plus has traveled nearly 5000 miles from Washington, DC to the Aloha State during this Easter recess to honor Charles Djou with the Benjamin Franklin Award. 60 Plus calls on 7.2 million seniors nationally for support, including more than 21,000 seniors in the Aloha State, and we’re proud to speak on their behalf when I say that they can count on Charles Djou if they elect him this November.”

60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin said: “I vow not to retire until our seniors are free from the burden of the death tax and I’m proud to send a spokesman to Hawaii during this Easter recess to support Charles Djou for Congress. The 60 Plus Association is committed to supporting pro-repeal candidates no matter what state they are in. Hawaiians would be wise to send Charles Djou to Washington, DC again to save their family businesses from the death tax.”

Jim Martin has been credited by many, most notably Bill Gates, Sr. in his book, Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes, with popularizing ‘death tax’ for the estate tax. The name has stuck because it is triggered only by death.

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